Schools Out, Forever (or at least next week)

(It's a play on song lyrics... If you haven't heard the song, then I don' know what to tell you)
So yeah, it's winter break. I think I'm going to blog about a few things, but I'll name them as subheadings: It's the End of The World As We Know it (and I Feel Fine), and OMG It's Snowing In Carnegie.

It's The End Of The World As We Know it (And I Feel Fine)
I have some bad news for you conspiracy theorists: I procrastinated on my Friday blog post, and we're all alive.

But Friday marked the last day we had before this lovely little break, as well as the annual CHS Variety Show. I was informed the day before that the WCHS Morning Crew (Consisting of Me, Clay Bodnar of JSVH fame, and Aidan K of AK Productions Fame) were to host the variety show. Now, I had emceed events before, notably the Talent show of like 2009 or something but my counterparts had only done the AM announcements with me.

It's strange to be on this end of the spectrum when a year back I ran lights for the same event. I got the call from the people running the lights that it was time to go, and instead of hitting the button for a spot, I led Aidan and Clay into darkness with nothing but a spotlight glaring upon us. For me, it was very strange.

We then talked about the end of the world as the opening, doing a custom-tailored version of REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know it (And I Feel Fine)" that we had learned a mere 9 minutes before curtain. It was complete with jumbled lyrics and an ancient Mayan dance, which consisted of Aidan doing the "start the lawnmower" and sprinkler.

Somehow, we managed to host the show with limited injury. We almost lost a Kozy cutout, and were nearly booed for our jokes, but hey, so are the pros! There were a few tech and performance snafus, but I think we managed well enough on our end.

I was asked when I went up to my grandparents house this weekend if our grades were checked, or if we needed to be in scholars or honors classes to do the announcements. Quite plainly, no. We're a group of volunteers that just want to do this for the heck of it. We get no bonus points, magic pats on the back, and I don't think we need it. Our announcements crew (not the tech crew... that is another story entirely) is a dysfunctional family that gets stuff done in a wacky way.

OMG It's Snowing In Carnegie
(Kudos to the CHS band for inspiring the title)
So there were two trends inspiring a lot of the tweets among local teens, or at least the people that I follow on twitter. The first was the end of the world, and the second is that it's snowing.

What a shocker that the first day of winter (northern hemisphere) contains snow. Yet the local news, and twitterers alike took to their proverbial pulpits preaching that it had indeed snowed.

On a final note, these events inspired this gem of a tweet from the great Lana Meyer responding to the great Marin Exler:

No school means hopefully more time to blog. Look for something on Boxing day and MAYBE on Friday for once. 

Happy Western Christmas, Chanukah, Boxing Day, Festivus, and New Years everyone!

Polio, CarLynTon, Halloween, and other stuff

Please note: this post will be written over a period of time!

I'd like to thank all of you for your continued support with everything. My blog is a mishmash of me ranting abou everyday things. My next question: Why must High School come with some much drama?

I was recently approached by my pretty good friend about a video contest. It is concerning Polio, and how it affected life as we know it. I am going into this as my first real video project. I am going to start over. That DnC Show was a great concept, the JSVH a great temporary success, and Total Randomness: COME ON! I only have so many blooper reels. So, with my good friend, I am going into this. I prefer not to talk about it, but I can give only some information. However, I am going to have people with music, stories, and a not-so-professional writer!

Halloween. One of my least favorite holidays. Sure, I put on that whole, "I love Halloween" act. Honestly, it is the one day out of the year where people are given an excuse to act something that they aren't. So, you are telling me that you want to portray SNOOKIE or something like FREDDY CROUTON! Anyway, people, myself included, act like something that they are not all of the time. I can quite frankly be schizophrenic... angry at one point, and break down laughing the next.

CarLynTon: a story of how things became what they are today. My next great project, and the one that may have any potential this year. Yes, I contemplated going onto the "BBC 2 1/2 Forever" mode, but that is just illogical. Much like Disney, I can only hold onto an audience for long. Well, more details to come.

The Making Of The JSVH...

I don't normally post twice in one day, but today is an exception. In the following post, I will detail two things, ok, detail two, say one more.

First off, There is a video Floating around YouTube featuring two 'Hetalia' Characters. It is to the tune of Spongebob (The most annoying cartoon on TV)'s F.U.N. Song. If you click on the link, you can see the funny part, as if it was made to go with this video vs. the Spongebob video.

Second, I wanted to detail about the making of the JSVH. Alternatively, it could be called "A Day In The Life Of A Video Producer."

• A Few Weeks Before Premier: Get in contact with Jeff and Clay, see when we can get together and meet about the upcoming show. Also, update FB Page/Blog.
• A Few Days Before Premier: Jeff finally gets back to me and we choose a date.
• The Week Of The Premier: Film EVERYTHING: Bloopers, Real Content, Video Games, etc. (You Never Know What You Will Need)
• Two Days Before Premier: Edit like crazy, download music, and post continuously on Facebook. Also, update the blog.
• Hours Before Premier: Convert Video, and Upload to YouTube.
• Day After YouTube Premier: Upload to Dailymotion and Reap the Benefits.

Well, that is what I do with my SPARE time. Did I mention that I have to keep three blogs up-to-date and I am in the process of re-doing another one?

I once was asked why I never update my own website (alexpopichak.com). I will be honest with you, and my family can vouch for this, I am on my computer for hours at a time. 90% of the time, I am doing something worthwhile, other times I am watching pointless videos like Hetalia and Trololo. One of my new favorite quotes is one by film director James Cameron.

"Are you excessively obsessive? If there is such a thing," Safer asked.

"Obsessively obsessive? Excessively obsessive? Clinically? Never been diagnosed. I'm sure it's a, I think it's in the job description for directors in general," Cameron said.

 Well, I guess that is it for now...

Post Number 50!!!

To buy myself time, this technically is the 50th post since I began. HOWEVER, I deleted some of the pointless nonsense so I could rant before my real post fifty. So, in reality, this is post 48, again. Confusing, but I think I know what I will have on the REAL 50th post.

Well, It has certainly been a while since I have updated my own blog. Let's see what is new, and what I can elaborate on.


Spring Queen 2010

On May 15th, I went to spring queen with my best friend Clay who escorted his (girl)friend Natalie. As for me, I went with my very good friend Lindsey. One of the more interesting stories is that I was unofficially 30 minutes late. I was in the parking lot 15 minutes or so early, but Lindsey didn't show up. The doors opened, and everyone but I went in. Little did I know that Lindsey was inside the whole time. As ticked off as I was, I was caught off guard by what was to happen later. I had danced with Lindsey (I CANNOT dance), and ended up with at least 5 death threats from my assorted group of friends. I guess I deserved it, but still....


Video Projects and Other Assorted Things Like That
I must have ranted thousands of times about video projects in the past. However, whenever Jeffrey quit, I thought that was the worst I have seen. I was sadly wrong. After at least three tries at another project, I had to pull out of it. I had created a train without brakes, and I couldn't go any further. Soon after, the project (I guess) manager decided to work further on this project. To this date, I have not been able to find common ground with him or his production group.
JSVH: The Second Season
Ok, so about two days after pulling out of the trainwrecked project, I got a call from my other good friend Jeffrey. He wanted to know if we could do the second JSVH season. Something we had been talking about thousands of times before. I happily agreed, and soon after, so did Clay. We plan on meeting about this sometime during next week.

BSA Troop 831 in Carnegie

I have been working tirelessly on working on the troop831carnegie project by means of everything free. I have been using e-mail nonstop. I have been everything from blogger to Google Calendar and Facebook. But That is another story. Anyway, I am FINALLY Second Class, and working on First Class. Once I am First Class, I can do everything scouting has to offer. This is my true goal in life at this point. I attended an Eagle Court Of Honor on Sunday, and I heard nothing but good things about the scouting program, and that already I am one of the 17% of boys in the US that stick with scouts.
Over the next few weeks, I will redesign their website. Just another thing on my list.

The Future of This Blog and Website
Well, I now have a permanent domain at alexpopichak.com. I will have to work on that also. Until then, That's the way it is:
Alexander Popichak

Explanations, confusion and a 2 hour delay

Why do all good titles need three things to call themselves titles. Just another random thing to ponder. So anyway, the last post was simulcasted on at least 3 websites and anything JSVH. As you can read below, Jeffrey quit. I first of all want to tell the world that A) Jeffrey is not the one at fault and B) I kind of expected this to happen.
The Jeffrey Stephan Variety Hour I knew was destined to end after the third video being shot. After that, it was obvious. Clay didn't say anything, and neither did I. Quite frankly, I thought that we would last for the first episode of season 2, but It didn't work out. In all honesty, it was a first for all of us doing this.
Also, I do have to confess that I have been working secretly on a project while the end was nearing. I wanted to get a friend of mine, David on an upcoming show with Jeff and Clay. Jeff wasn't so sure about it. So, we will be working on upcoming video productions. Although some producers disappear for about 2 years, but not this one.
So we had a 2-hour delay, and this is how I found out
*Wakes Up*
*Looks at alarm clock*
"7:03, I'm going to miss the bus, oh crap"
*runs into hallway*
"You have a two-hour delay, Alex"
*Sighs, mumbles under breath*
and that was my experience, as with a lot of my classmates found out that we did indeed have a two hour delay. I can ramble on, but I think that's enough.

The JSVH and the CBVH

This is the first in a group of posts that I will post focused on the JSVH, but I decided to divide this from my usual rants and scatter-braininess.


I have been working for three months with Jeff Stephan and Clay Bodnar. We are a group of friends that do a webshow. It is only us four who film for 2-3 hours, it is only us who look at every detail on the website, and it is only us who come up with material for the show. Jeff once offered Clay to have the show with him host, Clay kindly denied. That was the way he is.

A friend of mine decided to write a script. He gave it to Jeff, Clay, and after two weeks, me. Clay then calmly tells me he does not like the script. We are currently revising it because Clay is a valued member of our team. I decide to do something, it doesn't happen. I am their producer.

I really don't know what or where this journey and project will take us. I really don't care. What I do care is that this is a group of three friends working on something they love, with a great end product.

Tales from the black laptop.

So I am back to blogging. I basically missed a whole nine weeks grading period and some great stories. I have decided to make this my personal blog. It still will have stories from school, but there will also be some tales from the JSVH, my videos, and some randomness.

The JSVH
Not many people know, nor care that I work on a webshow with Jeff and Clay. I am really more of a filmmaker than an artist. My videos are what I see and my how I live my life. I have made over thirteen videos, and have over 667 views to date. One of my best videos is a series, the Jeff Stephan Variety Hour With Clay Bodnar (JSVH for short).
So I go down to the place we film at yesterday. Jeff told me to come down, and so I enter the room, and there is Clay sitting there. I ask what we are doing. Jeff then said to come up with ideas. In three hours, we came up with two ideas, filmed NOTHING, and Jeff played the new Call of Duty Game.

Jeff's Show

Jeff, Clay and I have been working on a webshow, The Jeff Stephan Variety Hour:

JSVH Season 1 Episode 1
by alexP525